Can He Assume the Life of His Half-Brother?

We meet the hero, Christian Barnes, as he is looking down at the face of his dead half-brother at Waterloo. Christian is the bastard son of the late viscount. The brothers look much alike, and in order to get better medical treatment for his own wounds, Christian decides to swap jackets and papers with his brother. Once back in England, he decides to take his brother’s place and become the viscount. He confides in his Uncle Theo, related on his father’s side, who knew about and did care about him. Things get complicated when Christian decides to go to the viscount’s country estate. He discovers that his brother has a marriage contract with a neighbor, Lady Rebecca. The girl has been steadfastly waiting for his return.

Will Christian be found out? Will Lady Rebecca notice the difference between the brothers? Who else might know who could topple this house of cards that Christian has created for himself?

I’ve read a lot of Regency Romance, but this particular spin on the imposter trope feels refreshingly new. Christian is a decent and sensitive gentleman–though he isn’t of that class, bastard son of a viscount and a maid–quite unlike his brother, who was never gentlemanlike while he was the one who was born to that privilege. Throughout most of the book, Christian doubts what he is doing and getting himself into, quite often thinking that he should give up the ruse. But he realizes that he can do good in a way that his brother would never have. He wants a home and security; this is what motivates him initially to assume his brother’s life. But soon he realizes that his actions will have an impact on others like his tenants and ultimately Lady Rebecca. Lady Rebecca, for her part, is a kind and intelligent woman who has been treated poorly by her own father, him seeming to only care about her as far as the marriage that she could make and the grandson that she could bear. Both Christian’s brother and her father have treated her so shabbily over the years that there is fertile ground for her to accept this changed this version of her former betrothed; he is now a man she can imagine making a good life with. I loved how Christian handled some of the ghosts of his brothers past, including Lady Rebecca and beyond. He is a good man and a perfect hero.

My only complaint about the book is that the story and the plot were bigger than the space given to it in this novella form. With the grand imposter story, so much could have been explored. For instance, at the very beginning of the book, I thought the London part felt rushed. I think it would have been wonderful to explore the time he spent in London before he saw Uncle Theo, a time which could have shown how he was struggling with his choices and what he needed to do next. Instead, this was just glossed over in a few lines. I would have liked to have seen, too, more of a development of the relationship between Christian and Lady Rebecca. They’re both awesome characters and have great chemistry, and I would have loved to have seen what was only hinted about or told actually shown in scenes and dialogue of their interactions. Some of it, too, was just too easy, like the author had to take shortcuts because of the novella-length constraints. I would have liked to have seen Christian’s mental struggle more, both in London and in the country. When he first met Lady Rebecca, after one meeting, he is already considering marrying her, and that seems rather too quick. These are great characters, and I would have loved to have seen their story developed more.

That said, this is an excellent story with characters you can’t help but empathize for as they are good people put in difficult circumstances. If you enjoy a Regency that’s a little bit different, you might enjoy the story.

An Officer and a Gentleman Vows to Protect Young Woman

Nate, now returning to England after being injured in the war against Napoleon, is thrown from his horse when it is startled by the presence of a young lady emerging from a hedge. Due to his injury, he needs assistance from the young woman to set himself to rights. As they talk, he finds her to be a level-headed young woman who is on her way to visit a friend who lives in a more distant area. Something doesn’t seem quite right to him, but he doesn’t press. He does offer his assistance.

From here the book takes a number of twists and turns as Nate and Lottie come to know and appreciate each other while he tries to protect her against the plots of an evil cousin. At times, it is quite humorous as they get themselves into situations that require subterfuge and prevarication. They quickly act quite well as a team and soon begin to esteem each other, though neither believes themselves worthy of the other.

Nate is an utterly swoon-worthy hero. In these types of romantic stories, I always have a soft spot for the wounded hero returning from war who questions his worthiness because of his injuries and his perceived feelings of not doing all he could for the cause and his brothers in arms. Nate is, in fact, on the road back to his father’s home, something he has avoided for some time because he feels like a failure and doesn’t want to see either his father’s pity or disappointment. His actions toward Lottie are always gentlemanly and kind; he looks out for her best interests, whether she wants him to or not.

Lottie has led a very sheltered life under her father’s protection, which is shattered after her father’s death. Her cousin inherits, and soon she learns he has a dastardly plot to get the money her father left to her. This is why she has left her house to seek shelter with a friend.

The book also had some wonderful secondary characters. In particular, I adored Nate’s father. He was so kind, generous, and loving, and just a little humorous; truly, Nate should have had no fear about returning home.

The plot in part has to do with spying and other matters of the realm.

Until about the halfway point, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters of Nate, Lottie, and Nate’s father were so well drawn that it was a delight to read their thoughts, actions, and reactions to wherever the plot was taking them. But then the author used several plot devices that are so common in these historical romances that I just about groaned, smacked my head, and stop reading. I won’t go into details, but they are standard devices in Regency novels. I hate when a plot seems to hinge on a happenstance that has a gazillion-in-one chance of actually taking place; then, this was flowed by another nearly de rigueur device when a plot has a villain with a plot against the heroine. The author had done so well in creating these fantastic, flawed, but noble characters that I wished she had taken that perhaps harder road and created a plot that wasn’t so cliched in the latter half. Even without those plot devices, the way that Lottie acted in the second half—both toward Nate and with the spying aspect of the plot—seemed incredibly out of character from what we knew of her earlier in the story and of her background. It’s hard to imagine a sheltered Regency girl acting as Lottie did.

For the first part of the book, I would highly recommend it. For the latter parts, not so much. Still, I did enjoy Nate’s and Lottie’s story; I just wish the author had kept the second half of the book more on track with what the first half of the book was like.